By Miriam Raftery

Photo: Ray Lutz, founder of Citizens Oversight, lead plaintiff in the case that recovered  $775 million for ratepayers, praises the court’s action.

November 18, 2018 (San Diego) – The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday dismissed an appeal from the California Public Utilities Commission which had sought to block payment of $5.4 million in legal fees to the law firm of former San Diego City Attorney Mike Aguirre. The fees were for work done by Aguirre’s firm on behalf of ratepayers in a settlement which saved ratepayers $775 million dollars related to shutdown of the San Onofre nuclear power plant.

East County News Service

December 6, 2017 (San Diego) — New research by Public Watchdogs reveals that the Navy warned the California Coastal Commission four days prior to its vote on October 6, 2015  that  the Commission "lacked the jurisdiction" to grant Southern California Edison a permit to bury nuclear waste just 108 feet from the beach at San Onofre State Beach Park.

By Miriam Raftery

Photo: San Onofre nuclear facility, before its shutdown in 2013.

August 31, 2017 (San Diego) – Finding a safe place to store spent nuclear fuel from the shuttered San Onofre Nuclear Generating Stations is a daunting task. Yesterday, East County Magazine reported on a settlement reached between Citizens Oversight and Southern California Edison that aspires to move the radioactive waste away from the beach at San Onofre over the next couple of decades.

One of the proposed sites   is in Arizona. But now officials at Arizona Public Services Company, which operates the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station west of Phoenix,  say they won’t take California’s nuclear wastes. 

By Miriam Raftery

April 4, 2017 (San Diego) – A lawsuit filed against the California Coastal Commission (CCC) by Citizens Oversight, a citizens’ watchdog group based in El Cajon, heads to trial beginning Friday, April 14 at 2 p.m. in San Diego Superior Court, Dept. C68 (330 West Broadway, San Diego).

Ballot initiative proposed to break up CPUC

East County News Service

February 12, 2016 (San Diego)--A San Francisco Superior Court Judge has ruled that secret e-mails between Michael Picker, the President of the California Public Utilities Commission, the Governor's Office and Southern California Edison must be made public.(Read the order.)

East County News Service

November 7, 2015 (San Diego) – On November 3^rd, the  utility fraud attorneys at Aguirre & Severson  filed an action in Superior Court seeking to prevent construction of  the world’s first beach-front nuclear waste dump at San Onofre, or what critics call the “most irresponsible nuclear dump ever,” according to a press release issued by the attorneys, who filed the suit on behalf of Citizens Oversight.

The California Coastal Commission is chartered to protect our state’s coastal resources. But on October 6 approved the dump just 100 feet from the beach near San Onofre State Park in San Diego County to hold nuclear waste that remains toxic for thousands of years. Wastes would be stored in thin-walled steel casks guaranteed by the manufacturer to last only 10 years, though the Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved them for up to 20 years of use. Salt water spray soaking casks could result in even earlier corrosion, yet there is no plan to remove casks even after 20 years. By then, the casks, each weighing 400,000 pounds, are apt to have degraded to the point where moving them safely would be nearly impossible, a press release issued by plantiff's attorneys contends.

Attorney Mike Aguirre called the Coastal Commission’s unanimous vote “an outrageous departure from its chartered responsibilities and the California Coastal Act,” adding, “We want the court to revoke Southern California Edison’s permit to pollute, and force Edison to find a safer location.”  The suit seeks revocation of the permit for the dump.

September 23, 2015 (San Diego's East County) -- East County Roundup highlights top stories of interest to East County and San Diego’s inland regions, published in other media. This week’s top “Roundup” headlines include:

LOCAL/REGIONAL

• Documents detail how nuclear material was handled at San Onofre (KNSD-7)
• Incomes rise, but poverty remains a problem (U-T San Diego)
• Sculptor's eviction means end of jumping mustangs (U-T San Diego)
• Lieutenant sues over reassignment (U-T San Diego)
• Regents reject intolerance statement  (U-T San Diego)
•  Ranch to the rescue for pot-bellied pigs (Ramona Sentinel)
• Local health insurance coverage rises to 88% under Obamacare (Times of San Diego)
• Local Water Agencies Are Making Moves to Take Control of Costs, Supply (Voice of San Diego)
• County pays $1M Sierra Club legal fees (U-T San Diego)
• Anderson Could Run for Three Different Seats in Six Years (Voice of San Diego)
• Sempra wins one showdown with Mexican rancher (U-T San Diego)
• Pension boss gets unemployment on top of $250,000 severance (U-T San Diego)
• Weber: Schools Need New Thinking — Not New Buildings (Voice of San Diego)
• La Mesan Claudia Sandoval Named Masterchef  (La Mesa Today)
• Poway Unified Might Re-Hire Controversial Bond Consultants  (Voice of SD)

STATE

• State panel outlaws ‘dark money’ in political campaigns (Los Angeles Times)
• Where have all the cops gone? (Desert Sun)
• Crowdfunding for wildfire victims: A new solution to an old problem? (CS Monitor)
• Deal would let Southern California buy surplus water from Nevada (Reuters)
•  As wildfires spread, the contractors are called in (APM Marketplace)

For excerpts and links to full stories, click “read more” and scroll down.

East County News Service

August 7, 2015 (San Diego) – Southern California Edison could face up to $34 million in sanctions for violating a ban on backdoor communications with state regulators over the San Onofre closure. Those are the findings of California Public Utilities Commission administrative law judge Melanie Darling, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports.

Darling will determine on August 20^th whether or nor to hold Edison in contempt.  Her ruling faults Edison executives Ronald Litzinger and Stephen Pickett for omitting facts from prior testimony about secret meetings with former CPUC chair Michael Peevey, including meetings at a posh hotel lin Poland.

Originally Published on the ECOreport

By Roy L Hales

March 23, 2015 (San Diego’s East County) - The lives of more than 8 million Californians may have been put at risk, when the steam generators at San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) malfunctioned. The subsequent California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) investigation failed to probe into the extent to which Southern California Edison (SCE) was responsible for the facilities “design errors.”  Now  the California Assembly Committee on Utilities and Commerce is calling on the CPUC to investigate the SONGS settlement.

By Ray Lutz, Citizens Oversight Projects

July 5, 2014 (El Cajon)-- Please take a look at this video presentation I created to be presented to the CPUC.  http://youtu.be/2umrwqLz_MI

The proponents of the $3.3 billion settlement proposal have met with the CPUC commissioners and their advisors in private meetings.  They would not allow me to make this power-point presentation at the recent public meeting. However, we are allowed to have private meetings of the same length as those granted to the proponents.

May 2, 2014 (San Diego's East County) - Ratepayers are feeling the pinch from higher utility bills due to rate hikes recently approved by the California Utilities Commission.

By Kathleen Connell

March 8, 2014 (San Diego's East County) - The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) will soon make a decision on how to replace the power from San Onofre.  This is a decision with consequences for generations to come.  The choice is local clean energy such as rooftop solar, energy efficiency, and conservation or natural gas power plants, i.e., fossil fuel generation.  Local clean energy fights climate change, doesn’t pollute our air, already supports hundreds of well-paying local jobs, and lowers electricity bills.  Natural gas power plants ramp up greenhouse gases, worsen air quality, average only 10-20 permanent employees, and raise electricity bills for all of us because they are funded by ratepayers and cost anywhere from $1 billion to $5 billion each.  And we are shackled to these monuments of the past for decades.

September 4, 2013 (San Diego) – On the heels of a hefty rate increase that took effect September 1^st, SDG&E wants  ratepayers to  pay for $808 million in costs of decommissioning the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Stations.  Ratepayer advocates, meanwhile, say ratepayers should receive a refund for charges assessed when the nuclear facility was off-line for more than a year before being shut down permanently.

The California Public Utilities Commission will hold two hearings on Tuesday, October 1 at 2 p.m. and again at 6:30 p.m. Both will be held in the Al Bahr Shriners auditorium, 5440 Kaerny Mesa Road, San Diego 92111. The commission will consider whether or not ratepayers should be charged for the decommissioning costs, as well as whether ratepayers should receive refunds for charges assessed while the nuclear facilities were offline for more than a year before the shut-down decision.

Demand Letter is the First Step to Legal Action

June 16, 2013 (San Diego) -- Citizens' Oversight, an organization that encourages citizens to take an active role in oversight of their democracy, submitted a demand letter to the California Public Utilities Commission on June 11 alleging that the CPUC violated open meeting laws by halting the group’s representative, Ray Lutz (photo, left), from videotaping  a recent public meeting on the San Onofre nuclear plant held in San Francisco.  The watchdog group’s letter seeks removal of the CPUC’s administrative law judge from the proceedings and other remedies.

Martha Sullivan with the Coalition to Decommission San Onofre said, "It was disheartening to see the CPUC judge presiding over this investigation of multi-billion dollar regulated utilities be more concerned with their privacy than allowing the Southern California public to observe the evidentiary hearings."

By Nadin Abbott

June 7, 2013 (San Onofre) – Southern California Edison (SCE) announced today that it will permanently decommission both reactors at its troubled Onofre nuclear generation plant.  (SCE has made this decision due to the uncertainty brought by the increased requirements for safety from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). 

“Looking ahead,” said Ron Litzinger, SCE’s President, “we think that our decision to retire the units will eliminate uncertainty and facilitate orderly planning for California’s energy future.” 

The nuclear waste on-site will remain there in dry cask storage—encased in stainless steel and concrete—until national leaders come up with a permanent storage solution, Patch.com reported.